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September 17, 2012

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010)

a bunch of random Australian and British people

Movies, like life, are all about expectations. The less you expect from a movie, the more likely you are to be pleasantly surprised by it. And as much as it pains me to say, such was the case. Yes, I was pleasantly surprised by the owl movie. I admit it. It's sort of like coming out of the closet to admit you own an Ashlee Simpson c.d. - you're ashamed to tell people, but you do listen to it. And enjoy it. Self-loathing-ly.

It had all the trappings of a terrible movie. First, there's the matter of the title. No movie deserves a title with EIGHT (count 'em, eight!!) words in it. And it's not even a sequel!! It's truly a terrible title. Second, owls are not cool animals. They're just not. They cough up hairballs with rodent bones in them, which is positively revolting, yet strangely familiar since it reminds me of 10th grade biology. (side note: I love that they manage to incorporate this nasty habit into the movie!)

It's not a regular hokey kid's movie like Happy Feet or other animal-themed animated movies, which is sort of weird, since I'm not sure who they would market this movie to (and the fact that this movie is actually from the same creator as Happy Feet). I'm not usually one to decry the uptick in violence and adult content in children's animation, but this movie did have some more mature themes that I'm not sure kids would appreciate, let alone understand. Which makes it an adult movie - except again, it's animated. It's strange.

Final word: Just a regular, enjoyable movie, except it stars owls instead of people. Wow, that sounds weird.